


Collateral Damage

by JetpacksAndRollerblades



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Childhood Friends, Hurt No Comfort, I'm Sorry, M/M, Memory Loss, One Shot, Re-Education, Thanksgiving, Unrequited Love, Wow, repost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 09:12:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7502619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetpacksAndRollerblades/pseuds/JetpacksAndRollerblades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Night Vale, time was weird. It was weird for everyone. Not all Night Vale residents had a childhood, and not all of them aged passed their twenties. Not even everyone could count on living out their lives in a relatively chronological fashion. So in that regard, Earl Harlan’s life wasn’t different or special. Not really. Sure, the whole coming back from the dead as a middle aged man with a kid wasn’t exactly unremarkable, in fact, many people remarked upon it, to Earl and to each other. Still,  it wasn’t exactly the most interesting thing happening in town either. So Earl just had to cope. What else was he supposed to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collateral Damage

**Author's Note:**

> So.. this is a repost, so if it seems familiar its possible you've read it before.. sorry.  
> Anyways, just to be clear, I love Earl very much and I want good things to happen to him but today's not the day I guess. Whoops.

In Night Vale, time was weird. It was weird for everyone. Not all Night Vale residents had a childhood, and not all of them aged passed their twenties. Not even everyone could count on living out their lives in a relatively chronological fashion. So in that regard, Earl Harlan’s life wasn’t different or special. Not really. Sure, the whole coming back from the dead as a middle aged man with a kid wasn’t exactly unremarkable, in fact, many people remarked upon it, to Earl and to each other. Still, it wasn’t exactly the most interesting thing happening in town either. So Earl just had to cope. What else was he supposed to do?

Roger. That’s what his son was named. That’s what he named his son? Did he name him at all? It was all very confusing for Earl. It was probably confusing for Roger too, having not existed at all for so long, and then BAM all of a sudden, there he is, a semi-transparent nine year old kid, already enrolled in Night Vale Elementary School before his own dad could work up the courage to ask him what his name was. How did  _he_ even know what his name was? It was all very confusing.

Earl thought that maybe being around Cecil might help him. Help him remember. Help him understand. Help him feel a little more whole again, like how he used to feel. But it doesn’t, not really. Cecil doesn’t seem to know much either. Neither of them could even remember what year they graduated from high school. Cecil didn’t even seem to remember just how close the two of them used to be. And he almost certainly couldn’t see how close Earl wished they still were. It was sort of ironic, Earl thought, Cecil could see  _so much_ and yet he was still so blind. Despite everything though, and how little Cecil could remember about their past, and Cecil’s new, special, scientist boyfriend, Earl at least felt that Cecil was trying. Trying to help him. And that was nice.

For thanksgiving, Cecil invited Earl and Roger over to Cecil and Carlos’ place. Cecil's sister, Abby, and her husband, Steve, and daughter, Janice, were supposed to come too, but something came up last minute and they had to ask Cecil for a rain check. Cecil seemed a little disappointed, and understandably so, and Earl sympathized with him,but secretly, he was glad that there would be less people for him to have to socialize with.

Carlos seemed nice enough. He showed Roger some of his special scientific tools and instruments, and Roger seemed to be at least somewhat interested. He even seemed to become a little more corporeal and a little less ghostly than he usually was. Earl even thought he might have even seen him smile. Cecil and Carlos tried to make a meal, but Earl ended up taking over the kitchen anyway. It didn’t him annoy, not at all. He actually found himself enjoying himself more there than he was before, seated on Cecil’s old couch, watching Carlos, the outsider, the interloper, get along with his own son better than he’d been able to within his past months back. In the kitchen, preparing a meal, he felt needed. He felt important. Maybe even loved. Those were good things to feel, Earl knew that.

Earl wasn’t sure when he’d become such a great cook. Maybe it was just a part of him from the beginning, a talent that he never needed to put to use so he never discovered. No matter how it happened, though, it was undeniable. Earl Harlan was a great cook. Cecil made sure to tell him that, multiple times, as the four of them sat down to eat at the small kitchen table, Roger shyly shifting in his chair to be closer to Carlos and farther from Earl. Earl felt happy that Cecil liked him and liked his food, and he felt envious of how easily Carlos got along with Roger. The two emotions were mixing inside of his body, and were very confusing. Earl decided to focus on Cecil, and to ignore Carlos as best he could.

Earl brushed off the compliments quietly, with a small smile, the way modest people like himself tended to do, and thanked Cecil for being so kind as to invite Roger and himself over for the holiday. Cecil looked lovingly at Carlos, smiled, and with his perfect voice told Earl that both Carlos and himself were just _so_ _glad_ that Earl was back and of _course_ he was invited. Especially if he cooks for them like this, he added. Carlos laughed.

Earl tried his best to like Carlos, he really did, but it’s hard to like someone who takes everything away from you so effortlessly. Earl wasn’t stupid, he knew that Carlos wasn’t doing it on purpose, he was just perfect. And lucky. And perfect. And  _frustrating_ . It seemed like everyone loved Carlos, or at least, everyone who Earl wished would love  _him_ , loved Carlos. Namely Roger and Cecil. Especially Cecil. It almost physically hurt Earl to see the loving way in which Cecil looked at Carlos. 

Earl remembered a time, so, so many years ago, when Cecil had looked at  _him_ like that. But that was a time that had long past. A time that in Cecil’s mind, probably never even existed. That was one of the side effects of having a heart as big as Cecil’s, Earl thought. He cared too much about things he wasn’t supposed to know about, and always tried to help. So he was re-educated. Repeatedly. It was hard for him not to repeat his crimes when he never even knew he ever committed one. The re-education process took a long time to perfect. Sometimes, maybe even often, there was collateral damage. Earl supposed that what he was. Collateral damage.

So Earl did his best. What else was there to do? He went to work every day as the sous chef at Tourniquet, and came home every evening as the man and father he was trying his hardest to be. And every night, while Roger was reading or playing video games or doing whatever the popular municipally approved activity for nine year olds was, he lay on his bed in his darkened bedroom, listening to Cecil’s broadcast, letting the low vibrations of Cecil’s beautiful, perfect voice run through him, the only thing tying him to reality, the only thing keeping him going. His lifeline. Because Cecil may not love him anymore but Earl will be damned to hell and back before he stops loving Cecil.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Um, sorry for making Carlos the bad guy I guess. Pls leave a cool comment for me!


End file.
